It's a great time to shop for SSDs and memory cards if you've been looking to expand your devices' storage capacities. Samsung's products are on sale for up to 57 percent off at Amazon, some of which are now listed for their all-time low prices on the website. The Samsung 512GB microSDXC Pro Plus card that comes with a USB reader, for instance, will set you back $48. That's the lowest price we've seen for the product, which typically sells for $55 and used to sell for as much as $115. It has read/write speeds of 160/120 MB/s and can store up to 30 hours of videos shot in 4K.

Another option is Samsung's Evo Select 128GB microSDXC card with adapter, which currently sells for only $12 or 40 percent off its list price of $20. It's a U3-rated card that has transfer speeds of up to 130MB/s, and Samsung recommends it for use not just with mobile devices, but also with the Nintendo Switch console. 

But if what you're looking for is a memory card for dashcams or security cameras, then Samsung's 128GB Pro Endurance microSDXC card may be the better choice. Samsung designed the model to be able to record and rewrite footage up to hundreds of thousands of hours in length, or up to eight years of continuous recording for the 128GB version. The company also says it designed the model to last and to be able to withstand being exposed to magnets, X-rays, water, harsh temperatures, as well as being dropped. 

In case you're looking to give your computer's storage capacity a boost instead, Samsung's 980 Pro internal SSD is also on sale. The 500GB variant will set you back $60, which is an all-time low for the SSD and is 57 percent lower than its list price of $140. It can reach read speeds of up to 3500MB/s and write speeds of up to 3400MB/s. Samsung says the Pro SSD was designed specifically for hardcore gamers and tech-savvy users, since it has the capability to handle heavy-duty applications for gaming, graphics and data analytics, among others. The model is also available in 1TB and 2TB if you need even more space. 

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Tesla has slashed its electric vehicles' prices for the sixth time this year, on the eve of its next earnings report. It has quietly lowered the price for the Model 3, so that the the rear-wheel drive variant now starts at $39,990 or $2,000 less than what buyers would pay for it as recently as earlier this month. If you'll recall, the automaker already cut $1,000 off its price and started selling it for $41,990 the last time it implemented price cuts just a couple of weeks ago. And earlier this year, Tesla cut its prices quite drastically across its lineup, with some models getting a price drop of as much as 20 percent.

As Tesla notes on its website, though, the rear-wheel drive model now only qualifies for $3,750 in tax credits after the government's change in guidelines took effect on April 18th. The new rules are related to the US cutting off China as an approved trading partner, which would lead to EVs using China-made batteries losing tax credits as a result. To note, Tesla's other cars are still eligible for the full $7,500 tax credits, including the Model Y vehicles that also got a price cut. 

The base, the Long Range and the Performance Model Y vehicles now cost $3,000 less than before. The base Model Y will now set buyers back $46,990, while the Long Range and Performance vehicles now cost $49,990 and $53,990, respectively. When Tesla reported its earnings for 2022 in January this year, Elon Musk said the company was seeing orders "almost twice the rate of production." According to Bloomberg, though, Tesla was unable to sustain that rate of demand and has made the lowest number of deliveries in the first quarter of this year since 2021. Since the company reportedly produced thousands of vehicles more than it handed over to customers, these price cuts were likely implemented to sell existing inventory and to drum up demand going forward.

Netflix is about to bring its fight against account sharing to the US. “In Q1, we launched paid sharing in four countries and are pleased with the results,” the company wrote in its Q1 letter to shareholders. “We are planning on a broad rollout, including in the US, in Q2.”

Since February, Netflix has offered paid account sharing in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. The add-on allows primary account holders to pay an additional fee every month to share their Netflix service with up to two people outside of their household. As the main owner of an account, you can still watch on your phone and sign into the service on a device outside your home, like a smart TV at a hotel. Netflix also allows secondary users to convert their profiles into new accounts.

“A Netflix account is meant to be shared in one household (people who live in the same location with the account owner),” the company says on a support page. “People who are not in your household will need to sign up for their own account to watch Netflix.”

In the past, Netflix has estimated more than 100 million non-paying households have access to its service through free account sharing. The company says the practice limits its ability to invest in new content. It’s also aware the decision to restrict account sharing is likely to lead to cancelations. The expansion of paid account sharing comes on the same day Netflix said it would sunset its DVD rental business in September.

After 25 years, Netflix's original business is shutting down. The company has revealed that it will "wind down" DVD rentals (that is. DVD.com), with its last movie discs mailing on September 29th. Simply put, the shrinking demand for physical rentals is making it "increasingly difficult" to offer the service the company wants.

Netflix shipped its first disc (Beetlejuice, if you're curious) in 1998. It has since mailed over 5.2 billion movies in its signature red envelopes (nearly all of them before 2019) to more than 40 million customers. You likely know the story after that. The company began streaming on-demand video in 2007, and that business grew quickly enough that it became Netflix's dominant offering. After a premature attempt to spin off the mailed rentals as Qwikster in 2011, Netflix moved them to DVD.com in 2016. By that point, the company was well into producing original streaming shows.

Developing...

Months later than rumored, Meta's Horizon Worlds is opening its doors to younger teens. The company is making its metaverse space accessible to teens aged 13 to 17 in the US and Canada in the weeks ahead. Unsurprisingly, the company is promising "robust" safety measures and parental controls — it wants to be sure the experience is age-appropriate, and the gradual rollout will help it gauge how well those protections are working.

Teens' Horizon Worlds profiles will be private by default, and won't automatically show locations or active statuses. They won't see unfamiliar adults in their "people you might know" lists. Age ratings prevent teens from creating or using mature content, and a "voice mode" garbles the voices of anyone that isn't following back. These younger users will also get safety tips while they're in VR. 

Parents can use the Meta Quest app or Family Center (now available for Horizon Worlds) to control features like personal boundaries. They can also allow or block apps, track usage and see who's following who. All users can cast their VR view to an external screen, so a parent in the room can see what's happening.

The strategy closely reflects Meta's approach to teen safety on Facebook and Instagram. That won't necessarily please everyone. Senators have urged Meta to keep teens off Horizon Worlds over concerns the company's safeguards may be inadequate. They've noted that Meta's own research revealed harm to some teens, and that other virtual spaces like VRChat are prone to predatory and toxic behavior.

There's plenty of pressure on Meta to expand, however. The social media giant has struggled to pivot to the metaverse, and continues to lose billions investing in the Reality Labs unit behind Horizon Worlds and Quest headsets. A wider teen audience could boost Horizon's audience and spur the market for VR hardware.

Apple is reportedly readying a wide array of apps and services for its upcoming mixed reality headset, according toBloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The company appears to be moving forward with plans to announce its first VR / AR headset at its Worldwide Developers’ Conference in June.

The Apple mixed reality headset (rumored to be named “Reality One” or “Reality Pro”) can allegedly switch between virtual and augmented reality. It will focus heavily on gaming, fitness, sports and collaboration tools. Customers who buy the device can use “millions” of existing apps in the headset’s 3D interface “with slight modifications” from developers. Additionally, Apple has reportedly been working with “a small number of developers” for months to optimize apps for the new product. Announcing the device months before its launch should also give other developers time to create new apps or adapt existing ones for its futuristic interface.

Although many of the product’s details have leaked before, a new morsel in this report is its ability to run Apple Fitness+ workouts in VR. (Imagine a virtual workout where you feel like you’re in the same space as the instructor.) In addition, it will allegedly support immersive sports viewing, leveraging the company’s streaming rights for Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball, as well as its 2020 purchase of VR sports startup NextVR. Likewise, the Apple TV app will let you watch videos in virtual environments like a desert or the sky.

The report says the headset will have a productivity focus, similar to the Meta Quest Pro. “The platform will support its Pages word processing, Numbers spreadsheet and Keynote slide deck apps, as well as iMovie and GarageBand for video and music production,” writes Gurman. It would also prioritize communication and remote collaboration, letting users see full-body 3D avatars of people they're talking with in FaceTime calls. Gaming will also be a primary focus. However, that wasn't always the case, as today's report says that Apple previously wasn't putting as much attention into that space.

Gurman also reiterates earlier reporting about the headset, including a Digital Crown like the one on the Apple Watch and AirPods Max headphones that lets you switch between VR (fully immersive, no real-world view) and AR (using cameras to combine your real environment and virtual elements). It would support running multiple apps simultaneously, “floating within the mixed-reality interface.” It could also remember where you were in your physical environment, leaving virtual elements in the same spot you left them. (We saw that feature as far back as the first HoloLens developer kit in 2016.)

The headset would also let you control it with eye gestures that determine where you’re looking and hand gestures like finger pinches to select items and navigate menus. In addition, it will have an in-air virtual keyboard and support physical keyboards for a more tactile typing experience. Its home screen could appear similar to the iPad’s with Apple’s familiar Control Center for toggling things like WiFi, Bluetooth and volume. Finally, it will support Siri voice control and use eye scans for security, acting as the device’s equivalent to Face ID and Touch ID.

Although the product will supply a robust feature set that will elicit curiosity, other companies have tried similar things but have yet to succeed. For example, although the cheaper Meta Quest VR headsets have done reasonably well as gaming devices, the more expensive Meta Quest Pro — with a similar mixed reality focus and productivity apps — has been a tougher sell to consumers. And Apple’s version will reportedly cost around three times as much — a staggering $3,000. On the other hand, Apple’s history requires us to keep a somewhat open mind: There were MP3 players before the iPod, smartphones before the iPhone and smartwatches before the Apple Watch. Those competing devices all had similar features but failed to capture the public’s imagination in the same way as Apple’s stylish and user-friendly variants.

Even if the product targets a niche audience, it could serve a purpose as a consumer-facing transition product pointing toward an eventual pair of AR glasses that passes for a regular pair of prescription frames. Seen by many in the industry as the holy grail of mixed reality, such a device could be worn all day out in the world, while the upcoming mixed reality headset expected in June would not.

When it comes to sustainability, cities represent both the problem and the solution. Sprawling slabs of concrete and asphalt create heat islands, resulting in significantly higher temperatures than non-urbanized areas, while city populations are only growing as the planet becomes more populous. Already, more than 60 percent of humans live in urban areas.

Framlab is a research and design studio based in Bergen, Norway, and Brooklyn, New York, and architects there are focused on rethinking the way we build city spaces. Framlab founder Andreas Tjeldflaat believes there’s a need to overhaul conventional urban planning with an eye on inclusion, adaptability and regeneration. His concepts address micro- and macro-level societal issues, from feelings of personal isolation to the consequences of human-driven climate change. They also end up looking extremely sleek.

Tjeldflaat outlined three conceptual projects for us, each one addressing a different problem in growing cities. Open House is a building designed to encourage interpersonal interaction through the use of soft edges and shared spaces, while Oversky places floating, cloud-like buildings above the city streets. Glasir takes advantage of leftover urban spaces like empty lots and streetside landscaping by establishing large glass treehouses with community gardens inside their branches. Watch the video for the below for the full story.

Horizon Forbidden West is a fantastic game. Along with upgraded gameplay and visuals and an even wilder story, it builds on the vast open world of Horizon Zero Dawn by introducing fresh environments to explore, including flooded areas and the open ocean. 

However, those who have a fear of deep bodies of water (thalassophobia) may not have found it easy to play the game, which requires players to explore underwater as part of the main story. Guerrilla is finally addressing that and other accessibility issues in the latest patch.

The update, which arrives alongside the Burning Shores expansion, adds a thalassophobia mode to Horizon Forbidden West. The studio wrote in an FAQ that this "aims to ease thalassophobia symptoms by improving underwater ambient visibility and allowing you to breathe indefinitely, regardless of story progression."

Other updates include additional color blindness settings and the option to make waypoints and quest icons larger. There's now a way to reorientate the camera in Focus mode to point it towards the current objective, along with an auto camera function that follows Aloy based on how you move the left thumbstick. In other words, you won't need to use the right stick to move the camera.

In addition, there are larger subtitles and the ability to darken the edges of the screen to boost the contrast. The update rolls in one more very welcome quality-of-life feature in the form of automatic pickups. So, Aloy can grab items without you having to press or hold a button every single time.

Sony has placed a greater focus on accessibility in its first-party games in recent years. The likes of The Last of Us Part II, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and God of War Ragnarok have extensive accessibility options. The company hasn't quite perfected accessibility — a review of The Last of Us Part I on PC criticized that version for not offering full control remapping. But, as this update to Horizon Forbidden West over a year after the game's debut shows, the company is willing to keep improving its games' accessibility over time.

Reddit has collected a treasure trove of human interactions and conversations throughout the past 18 years and this rich data pool has been the perfect spot for companies to train large language models, otherwise known as AI chatbots. Now, Reddit wants a piece of the AI pie and will begin charging companies for API access, which is necessary to train LLMs.

After all, these are not mom-and-pop companies using the API to train AI chatbots. Bigwigs like Google and OpenAI use Reddit to help provide initial guidance to burgeoning artificial intelligence services. To that end, Reddit is introducing a “new premium access point for third parties,” the company said in an official announcement.

The pricing is still up in the air, though Reddit has confirmed it'll be split into tiers of some kind, likely to support companies of different sizes. The social media platform mentions various usage limits and broader usage rights as points of distinction between tiers.

“The Reddit corpus of data is really valuable,” Steve Huffman, founder and chief executive of Reddit, told The New York Times. “But we don’t need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.”

Reddit is far from the only online depository of information used to train large language models, as data scrapers like Common Crawl are also frequent chatbot tutors. However, Common Crawl and related services trade in raw data, as in large pools of information sitting online, whereas Reddit consists of conversations between humans. A well-rounded AI requires access to both types of data to increase factual accuracy and person-like behavior.

Reddit’s application program interface (API) is also regularly used to create and maintain content moderation tools. Instead of charging content moderators to access the API, the company is creating dedicated moderation tools in the form of iOS and Android apps. The apps will feature a mod log, rules management tools, mod queue information and more.

Why make this change now? AI has gone from niche to big business seemingly overnight and rumors swirl that Reddit is looking to go public later this year. Setting up a new revenue stream is never a bad idea when introducing an IPO.

Twitter has, once again, quietly updated a significant policy without explanation. The company appears to have changed its hateful conduct policy to remove a section that protected transgender people from misgendering and deadnaming, in a move spotted by GLAAD.

Twitter had originally banned targeted deadnaming and misgendering in 2018. “We prohibit targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category,” the policy stated. “This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”

That last sentence has now been removed. Twitter’s policy page indicates it was last updated in “April 2023.” But, as GLAAD points out, a look through the Wayback Machine suggests the change was made April 8th.

GLAAD and others have condemned the move. “Twitter’s decision to covertly roll back its longtime policy is the latest example of just how unsafe the company is for users and advertisers alike,” GLADD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “While the rules were sparsely enforced, this greenlights further targeting of trans users,” wrote Alejandra Caraballo, clinical instructor at Harvard’s Cyberlaw Clinic, who also flagged the change.

Twitter so far hasn’t publicly commented on the rule change or provided an explanation. Elon Musk disbanded the company’s communications team. 

However, Musk has previously signaled that he wanted to walk back the rules. One of his first moves as CEO was to restore a number of high profile users who had been banned under the previous policy. Around the same time, Bloomberg reported that Musk — who has repeatedly mocked people who specify their pronouns — had instructed staff to “review” that section of the company’s hateful conduct rules.